Block calves running bulls

I thats it

Member
Any block calves using bulls exclusively? And if so how many cows per bull?
Any advice, I was thinking get a vet check of the bulls in reasonable time?
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
fertility testing bulls is a must, we do ours on a vet visit, its basically down to ball size, and how sperm look under a microscope, we had a lady helping us last season, the whole session was worth the money, just to see the look on her face ! Some say 1 bull to 15, others say less or more, its down to how many are bulling at once, you must also take into account that xbred cows will be bulling for longer, so bull/s will be working very hard. I think the best advice we were given, is to rotate bulls, they really deserve a rest ! We AI for so long, then change bulls round daily, if you knacker your bulls out, your calving block will lose time, so there is nothing to be gained by scrimping.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
rumour has it, that 1 large spr herd near here, turns out 90, end of milking is quite hairy, few cows, and lots of randy bulls. That would be 1 to 10, and its been the same rumour for years.
 

I thats it

Member
Im a big fan of bulls, but need ai for 6 weeks to get 80% out the way else feet wont stick it. 10 bulls looking at 120 cows on week 7 here, on 3 day swap arounds, still kill their feet by week 10.

Also in a deep sand enviroment, the bulls pisser floods a cubicle. Right pain
So you've 10 bulls for 120 cows and have 5out at a time swapped every 3days?
I'm obviously way out with my thinking, was thinking if having 3or4bulls for 120
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
Used to run 1:20-30, Used to rotate but found there was more fighting and danger to staff so left them as a group all were home bred so grew up together and ran with heifers for their first year. There was actually very little fighting.

I currently just run sweepers at 1:50 but after 6-8 weeks of AI, I leave them in until we no longer run a dry cow group during calving, and run them through the parlour, but I'm quite lucky in that I seem to have very placid bulls, but anything that looks a bit funny gets turned inside out very quickly. My current bull has the annoying habit of sticking his head through the back of the parlour and licking the back of my head when I'm in the pit though!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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